The present invention is in a dry coating process and apparatus therefor and more specifically in a foodstuff coating process which omits intermediate or pre-coating cooling procedures and apparatus and significantly reduces the processing time for applying a topical coating, such as a sweetener coating, to a foodstuff product. The coating process and apparatus is especially useful in forming topical coatings on food products such as cereal products and the like.
Today's consumer is offered a large number of food products which have been prepared and/or treated in numerous ways for considerations such as convenience, appearance, storage stability and, most importantly for organoleptic considerations such as taste or feel during mastication. Presweetened food products such as cereals, cookies, pastries, snack foods, nuts or roasted nuts and candies have long been available. Such products often have surface sweetening which can have different appearances, i.e., glazed, frosted or powdered.
Topical or surface sweetening of a foodstuff is usually applied in the form of a solution of the sweetener. The sweetener can be a natural sweetener, such as a sugar, or it may be an artificial sweetening product such as potassium acesulfame or Aspartame, 3-amino-N-(.alpha.-carboxyphenethyl) succinamic acid N-methyl ester. Sugar, usually sucrose, is the primary ingredient of the sweetener. Other commonly used sugars include, i.e., dextrose, glucose, fructose, corn syrup, saccharin and other well known natural (honey) and artificial sweetening agents.
However, the application of surface sweetening to a foodstuff requires a number of different processing steps each of which necessitates a further treatment of the food product and capital and labor expenditures for additional apparatus, control systems and their maintenance. Each process step or operation introduces a potential bottleneck in the process should the apparatus or control systems break down during operation. Each step also is a possible source of off-spec product should that part of the system fail to operate properly. Since it is of the utmost importance to food producers to maintain a constant quality of product including taste, smell and appearance, it is highly desirable to eliminate, or minimize the possibilities for off-spec product.
The coating process also has an economic impact and can entail an expensive series of steps in the production of any given product. Thus, there are many good reasons, including process and quality control, to utilize as few processing steps as possible when trying to consistently produce a product according to technical specifications and subjective criteria.